As of March 29, 2019, CREA has updated their tools and resources intended to help brokers and REALTORS® comply with Canada’s Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA) and FINTRAC’s regulations. Since CREA’s last update in 2017, FINTRAC issued new guidance and policy interpretations and the resulting changes have been made to CREA’s materials.
CREA is strongly recommending that members and brokerages use the latest versions of their FINTRAC support materials and forms.
Details on the changes are included below.
CREA Compliance Regime Manual & Risk Assessment Form
The Compliance Regime Manual and Risk Assessment Form have been updated to reflect a brokerage’s obligation to review government directives as well as CREA’s support materials.
Note: The Compliance Regime Manual is listed as the “FINTRAC – Office Policy Template” in the “CREA FINTRAC Resources” section on CREA’s Money Laundering – FINTRAC Resources page on REALTOR Link®. In the same section you will also find the updated Risk Assessment Form.
Receipt of Funds Record
In the Receipt of Funds Record, CREA added E-transfers to the list of possible ways that funds are received. There is also a clearer explanation on when section E (the Reasonable Measures Record) applies:
“If the buyer agent’s client provides funds directly to the listing agent, where a client account is affected (e. g. client’s chequing account), the buyer agent is only obligated to take reasonable measures to obtain the account number, the name of the account holder and the type of account. However, the buyer’s agent would need to complete Section E, below, to document that they tried to get this information.”
Virtual Currency
Under current legislation, virtual currencies (eg. bitcoin) are not considered “funds” per se. So, if a client provides your brokerage with virtual currency (eg. for a deposit) you are not required to complete a receipt of funds record or large cash transaction record.
However, you are still obligated to complete other FINTRAC regime obligations, such as identifying your clients and reporting suspicious transactions. CREA anticipates that the federal government may implement new policies in the future regarding virtual currency.
Business Relationship/Ongoing Monitoring
FINTRAC has clarified its position on a brokerage’s business relationships and obligations for ongoing monitoring. Under FINTRAC’s new policy interpretation, brokerages may be formed more easily, however, are free to schedule their ongoing monitoring activities rather than perform this automatically after every purchase or sale. CREA has created a suggested ongoing monitoring schedule in the updated Compliance Regime Manual/FINTRAC – Office Policy Template, which brokerages can incorporate into their business.
Terrorist Property
A reminder has been added to CREA’s template Client Information Records (both the Individual Identification Information Record and the Corporate/Entity Identification Record) for Realtors to apply their brokerage’s terrorist property report policies.
Minor changes were also made to CREA’s other FINTRAC support materials, some of which are available on WEBForms®.
The following five FINTRAC forms were updated on WEBForms® as of March 29, 2019:
- FINTRAC – Individual Identification Information Record
- FINTRAC – Corporation/Entity Identification Information Record
- FINTRAC – Identification Mandatary/Agent Agreement
- FINTRAC – Receipt of Funds Record
- FINTRAC – Risk Assessment Form
More information:
- CREA’s Money Laundering (FINTRAC) Resources